Bitcoin breaks $1000, but how far can it go?

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Remember back in the day, when a single Bitcoin traded for a mere $100? It was a simpler time, before the nightly news began reporting on the value of hash strings, before every shared startup space was home to at least one virtual prospector and all the associated leaflets about crypto-anarchist society meetings. Bitcoin’s most avid supporters were still the fedora-and-leather-trench-coat set. Yes, it was a simpler time — but it was also less than a year ago. In just over 10 months BitCoin has transformed its reputation, built considerable trust with the pubic, and scrabbled haplessly up the value-slope to fully dectuple its sale price.

Now valued at over $1000 per coin (in some places), Bitcoin is certainly on the upswing — but can the ride last forever?

The primary impediment to Bitcoin’s continued success (besides the possibility that it will be legislated out of existence) is that right now Bitcoins are mostly just savings vouchers. Sure, people are buying Bitcoins, in the same way that they might buy gold to stockpile in a bunker, but if BitCoins sit in wallets they ultimately don’t help anybody. Unlike the value of gold, which has a physical basis and market controls that lend it some stability, BitCoin investors could very conceivably lose their fortunes overnight, making a mass panic and catastrophic sell-off a much more pressing concern. That, together with the fragility of data as opposed to bars of metal, mean that BitCoin has significant problems gold does not.

The next generation’s economic showdown?

Value is a measure of demand, so when demand increases purely in response to a rise in value, we get a feedback loop. Imagine if nobody cared about gold for decorative and industrial purposes, instead using it exclusively as a place-holder for value both earned and spent in competing currencies. This is basically what we have today in Bitcoins, and though gold’s intrinsic value is largely arbitrary in nature (we think it looks pretty), that doesn’t make Bitcoin’s lack of intrinsic value any less dangerous. If people were willing to spend thousands to park a BitCoin on their finger for forty years, the story might be very different.

News organization often represent the largest Bitcoin transactions, transfers of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, as proving the economy’s health. Unfortunately, if I buy $100,000 worth of Bitcoins and send those Bitcoins to you, whereupon you immediately trade them back into US dollars, the Bitcoin economy sees little long-term benefit. The difficulties with online currency have made even the Electronic Frontiers Foundation cease accepting anonymous Bitcoin donations from its users — if Bitcoins continue to be mostly used to buy other currencies, as opposed to goods and services, then Bitcoin’s potential for growth is much, much lower than current speculation would have you believe.

Huge Wall Street bubble …when it will explode the current economic crisis could look like a joke.

Winston Smith

PLEASE JUSTIFY WHAT YOU ARE SAYING OR JUST STFU

Keith Locw

He says crisis in current Situation. from Last five years Gold and bitcon prices up and down.

JD Rahman

You need to stop believing everything Alex Jones says

Or take conspiracies theories for what they are: 20% truth, 80% lies
Which means that although some of them might be very real, you don’t know what is real and what is not

Winston Smith

Rahman, I have a rough idea of what Alex Jones thinks (I’m not a fan) and I’m pretty sure chojin’s opinions don’t even match up to that.

They don’t match up to anything because they have no basis in reality, the things he thinks are semi-understood barely comprehensible nonsense.

For example: He keeps referring to Wall Street and Bitcoin as if there’s some unstated, obvious, axiomatic connection between the two when Bitcoin by its very nature, its primary raison d’etre even, is that it is NOT connected to Wall Street in any way whatsoever. I cannot emphasis this basic fact enough here in writing.

He keeps saying it as well, every article on BTC there he is talking about some bitcoin-related Wall Street crash and I’m just sitting there gobsmacked and irritated that someone so demonstrably and totally ignorant of basic facts KEEPS SAYING IT. Not just once or twice but on every single article.

What. The. F***.

To summarise: There is no WS/BTC connection, BTC’s crashing has no bearing whatsoever on almost any other market in existence. At least Alex Jones’s ravings have some tenuous relation with reality even if they’re wrong or misunderstood but chojin just pulls random factoids straight out of his ass with nothing to back them up and presents them as fact when NOTHING could be further from the truth.

Total braindead moron.

tgrech

The current upward trend has been caused by exchanges opening in China, rather than any Western trend. If this was purely Western, it would have crashed by now, but every time people start selling, those in China just buy it all back up again. This create mini few minutes “Crashes”, commonly referred to as “bear traps”. But it also means no matter how much people exchange BTC to USD, it is almost impossible to crash, because people just immediately buy the new cheaper BTC with Yuan. The only thing that’s likely to crash from this behavior and the rise of Bitcoin in this form is USD. The same trends has been seen with LTC(Due to its opening on OKcoin, the largest Chinese exchange).

Dan W

Lol – guess you’re holding LTC and everybody should buy right? Bitcoiners are simply hedging and diversifying by converting some btc to ltc. Also those who want a larger roi and believe they missed the btc opportunity are simply investing in the next best thing (they assume). also ltc is being pumped and dumped like crazy.

tgrech

Correct, I’ve been mining and buying and holding LTC for 6-9 months, when it was $3 and had little hope. I a;sp believe it will go much higher than it is now and there’s still money to be made for buyers. I also know that these crypto currencies are starting a mini-revolution in China, as people are easily decentralizing their wealth from the Yuan, and now have an easy and secure way to convert to other fiat, as well as this, it won’t be long until people there can pay their taxes and the like with crypto, so it’s only going to pick up. Sure, it’s only one country, but it still makes up around 20% of the worlds population, and that can make one hell of a difference, so I’m sure this is only the beginning for crypto.

Dan W

err nah mate – keep dreaming. QQ Coins was a centralized virtual currency in China created by Tencent. It became huge and people were using it for daily trade too – it reached 13% of cash circulation and with just a nod from the gov it was gone.

tgrech

Q coins is in no way comparable to Bitcoins. That’s like comparing Microsoft points to USD. Tencent themselves state quite clearly that Q coins are not a currency, and I’m not sure what you meant by “It was gone”, Q coins are still widely used throughout China the the PBC hasn’t taken action against it.

Despite the irrelevance of Q coins, Bitcoins are much better received in China, the PBC have stated clearly that people are free to trade crypto as they wish, and that they don’t even have plans to tax it(Unlike say, Germany, who have accepted it but do plan to tax it). Not only that, but Baidu(Known as the Google of China, most popular site in China, and one of the most popular sites in the world) is already adopting the currency, the Chinese government are not known to chew their own leg off and limit their most successful countries from being able to accept more(Now even including international) payments for little to no gain, which is what restricting the company from using Bitcoin would be doing.

JD Rahman

Bitcoins should not be compared to Gold.
Which global currency today is backed by gold, or silver, or anything?
The US dollar is as much a vaporware currency as is Bitcoins.

JD Rahman

Bitcoins should not be compared to Gold.
Which global currency today is backed by gold, or silver, or anything?
The US dollar is as much a vaporware currency as is Bitcoins.

aussieaussieaussie

It’s crazy like the dutch tulip bubble I mean at the moment I can borrow half a million against the house and make $150000 profit in 24 hrs.

aussieaussieaussie

It’s crazy like the dutch tulip bubble I mean at the moment I can borrow half a million against the house and make $150000 profit in 24 hrs.

Yowan Rdotexe

The problem with BitCoin is that you’ll be wasting electric for nothing since mining has become virtually unprofitable. What you want to do is mine Litecoins, they’re in the stage Bitcoins were about a year ago.

dsp4

The problem with LTC (and all the other alt-coins) is that it is completely dependent on the BTC value. If the BTC goes up, so does the LTC. If it crashes, the LTC does too. For now, alt-coins are nothing more than play money.

dsp4

The problem with LTC (and all the other alt-coins) is that it is completely dependent on the BTC value. If the BTC goes up, so does the LTC. If it crashes, the LTC does too. For now, alt-coins are nothing more than play money.

dsp4

The problem with LTC (and all the other alt-coins) is that it is completely dependent on the BTC value. If the BTC goes up, so does the LTC. If it crashes, the LTC does too. For now, alt-coins are nothing more than play money.

tgrech

Except that’s not really true in any way, if you’ve been watching the values of LTC to BTC, you’ll see they’re fairly independent. Also, while BTC has risen by maybe 50% in the last week or so, LTC has risen by around 1000%, the difference is huge. While Bitcoin was tanking, LTC was flourishing, and when Bitcoin finally surpassed 1000 on BTCe, LTC was diving to 60% of its previous value. Your statement was wrong on so many levels that it hurts my head.

apple999

Bitcoin means freedom.
Freedom from the government (and capitalist greedy bankers) controlled money supply.
Bitcoin (digital currency) is the future.
Today dollar is the currency of the world.
Dollar is created by FED and sent to big bankers in the (rotten ) trickle down economics system of Adam Smith with the intention that banks give money to industry and industry pays workers salaries.
However , rather the greedy bankers have started indulging in risky speculative activities and frauds (sub prime crisis , toxic bonds , loans mortgages & debts) in order to make more money by making more & more common people indebted for life. This is akin to bonded labor.
This is mammon worship.
However Dollar is going to crash shortly.
And bitcoin is a reprieve from this system , it is people’s money, it is created by people , of people and for people.

apple999

Bitcoin means freedom.
Freedom from the government (and capitalist greedy bankers) controlled money supply.
Bitcoin (digital currency) is the future.
Today dollar is the currency of the world.
Dollar is created by FED and sent to big bankers in the (rotten ) trickle down economics system of Adam Smith with the intention that banks give money to industry and industry pays workers salaries.
However , rather the greedy bankers have started indulging in risky speculative activities and frauds (sub prime crisis , toxic bonds , loans mortgages & debts) in order to make more money by making more & more common people indebted for life. This is akin to bonded labor.
This is mammon worship.
However Dollar is going to crash shortly.
And bitcoin is a reprieve from this system , it is people’s money, it is created by people , of people and for people.

dsp4

Graham Templeton, you need to learn how to use a spellchecker.

Aniga Kaliya

I could have bought bitcoins when they were 35, 45, 65, 95,100 dollars. I hate uncertainty… and a little bit of myself.

In my area there is no routine of Bitcon. we buy gold and sell it or save in house for celebrating for our family women. Spouse if i want to buy Bitcon can purchase online tell their web address.

David Spencer

“Imagine if nobody cared about gold for decorative and industrial purposes, instead using it exclusively as a place-holder for value both earned and spent in competing currencies.”

a) People who argue in favor of industrial uses for gold are thinking in terms of the materials science of another century b) the only reason people wear gold at all is because it’s perceived to be valuable. If gold was $1 an ounce, you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anything so tacky.

David Spencer

If 1 ounce of gold = $1, they wouldn’t feel so celebrated and you would switch to diamonds or platinum.

This is a lottery very well done and very easy to use.You can come back and play every hour; you win a few bitcoins each time you play

It is great to learn how Bitcoin works and to win your first bictoins for free, play until you get the first prize.

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